Chicago Fire's Jaw-Dropping Finale Sees Boden's Departure, More Changes at 51 and One Whopper of a Final Reveal

This story contains spoilers from the Season 12 finale Chicago Fire.

Season 12 finale Chicago Fire took quite a few hits — and that’s not even counting the fight that broke out when Fire Department 51 arrived at the scene of the restaurant fire.

Ahead of the episode, viewers learned that Eamonn Walker, who has played Chief Wallace Boden since the series began in 2012, is stepping down as a series regular, though he will likely make recurring appearances here and there. But how he would leave remained a mystery. After all, it seems he didn’t want to throw his helmet in the ring for the deputy commissioner job, right?

But when a rescue at the site went awry and the foreman fell into critical condition after insisting his team be rescued first, Boden suffered a leadership protest – and announced he would resume work just days before the new DC to be named.

Eamonn Walker on Chicago Fire season 12 finale.

Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC

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Shortly after sharing the news with the team, he spoke privately with Christopher Herrmann (David Eigenberg) about his desire to have him take over as boss. “You can take care of our family,” Boden told Herrmann, who replied, “I’m nobody.” Of course, we all know that he is not, that he “leads with his heart”, as Boden said.

That wasn’t the only change the firefighter family faced: Mouch (Christian Stolte) struggled to adjust to the new equipment, and also revealed that he was preparing for the lieutenant exam with the help of his wife, Trudy.

In the aforementioned fight, Sam Carver (Jake Lockett) and Jack Damon (Michael Bradway) ended up in a physical fight with a restaurant owner and a father who was mean to his son and refused to take care of his bad burn, which he may or may not have he didn’t cause it himself. For Carver, this hit close to home, having been abused and burned by family members as a child, but Lt. Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) wasn’t sure why Damon was so upset.

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Our favorite fictional emergency shots in a restaurant fire in Chicago Fire.

Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC

Soon after, Carver had an argument with his lover, Chief Nurse Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith), who accused him of still being in love with Kidd. But he insisted that wasn’t the case, that she kept him at a distance and struggled to accept that they were something more because of the death of her former lover, Chief Hawkins. He also admitted that he was falling in love with her before leaving. Later, Stella told Violet about Carver’s past and said he had taken another vacation.

Just before they found out that Boden got the job in DC, Kidd and her husband, Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), started talking about the kids, but little did they know that a family bombshell was yet to come…

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Taylor Kinney and Miranda Rae Mayo in Chicago Fire.

Chicago/YouTube

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The team gathered in Boden’s office to congratulate him and see him off. He insisted that there was no big farewell, and Kidd stopped him. “That’s the thing,” she said. “There are people you say goodbye to, and people you can never say goodbye to because they became too much a part of who you are. They shaped you, trained you, even taught you everything you know.

Darren Ritter (Daniel Kyri) chimed in: “Sometimes I look around and feel like I was born here. Before I didn’t know what it was to be a firefighter, or a brother.”

“Now you can do that for the entire CFD,” Severide said. – And they will see how lucky we were.

“You made 51 families, Chief, and this firehouse a home,” said Joe Cruz (Joe Miñoso), and Mouch concluded, “Thank you, Chief, for being the best friend and leader anyone could ask for.”

Michael Bradway in Chicago Fire.

Adrian S Burrows Sr/NBC

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When the group broke up to get back to work, Damon approached Severide to explain why he lost his cool in the restaurant fire—and the real reason he reached 51 years old.

“That guy in the restaurant, the father, was mean and treated that younger kid like trash, and I had a father like that,” he said. “His name was Benny Severide.”

oh Kelly has a brother he never knew about.

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Benny was Kelly’s father, played by the late Treat Williams. The character died of a stroke in season 7.

Chicago Fire airs on Peacock and will return for Season 13 in the fall.

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